Latest / Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast / Lars Nootbaar activated, Jordan Walker bounces back, Oli Marmol sticks with Riley O’Brien

Transcript

Lars Nootbaar activated, Jordan Walker bounces back, Oli Marmol sticks with Riley O’Brien · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Cardinal Territory. Jim
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Hayes alongside Kyle Gibson, who is in the garage. Hi Kyle,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: how are you today?
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Hi Jim. I'm doing very well. Thank you. I hope
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: you're doing well also, I am.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: We've talked a couple of times on the Serving It
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Up podcast and now Cardinal Territory about you know, we're
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: going through a home build. I am currently at the
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: home site right now. I've got to do some work
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: here to the detached garage, hanging some blocking in the ceiling.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: So I know, people just think that we're supposed to
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: block out, you know, in our time for this show exactly.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: But I mean, I just figured I'll go about my day.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: I'll send an alarm so I don't forget about talking
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: to Jim, and then wherever I'm at is where I'm
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: going to do it.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So here I am.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Well, you have a life, so you know, you have
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to live it and if that means you have to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I don't even know what blocking is. I don't know
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: what putting blocking up is. You mentioned it earlier. I
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: didn't want to seem like I don't know the world
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of the handyman.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: So real quick. I know people didn't bargain for this.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: You know this is not what they clicked on when
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: they're coming to the podcast here. But like in between
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: your ceiling trust is right. You know you've got a
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: anywhere from sixteen and the detach, we got a twenty
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: two inch gap or trying to hang like a little
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: heater in the corner. Well, if you can take two
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: by fours and span that twenty two inches, then you
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: have more to screw into. So then when you go
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: to hang that heater, you're not like searching for a
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: stud and then maybe you don't hit one, and then
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: you're hanging your heater in drywall waiting for it to
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: fall down at some point. So you just take some
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: two by fours, put it in between the ceiling trust
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: is there, and you know you hit yourself something to
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: hang into.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I usually get myself a guy to do that kind
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: of stuff for me, because I am an idiot. All right,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: it's a cardinal off today. But after last night's game,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Ali made official a piece of news at Lars new
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Park who's coming off two heel surgeries and was rehabbing
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: a Memphis and was tearing it Up is officially back
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: with the Cardinals starting Friday. So my question to you,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Kyle is what does Nuke bring to this ball club
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: that they that they can use.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: You Know, in twenty twenty four, it was clear to
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: me that I thought Lars was one of the big
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: time important leaders in this clubhouse, not only just on
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: the field, but what he brings to the locker room
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: and off the field. He is a guy that is
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: the same person every single day. He shows up with
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: energy and effort, and he plays the game the right way.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: And I just feel like he probably once he gets
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: back on the field, he probably can even feel more
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: like himself. We know what he brings on the field.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, he had a down year in twenty twenty four,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: and I think he had a seven sixty ops. We
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: know that he plays you know, gold glove colber defense
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: at multiple outfield positions, and he's just he's a veteran
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: stable presence. I know this is probably not even what
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Cardinals fans.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Want right now.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I'm not really sure what they necessarily want on the
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: field other than just to play really good baseball, which
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: they're doing. But like, he's a veteran stable presence that
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: I think is gonna be really good not only for
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: the outfield, but for this team when he's back in
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: the lineup, and he does in a lot of different ways.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: He walks and he gets on base. He's got some
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: thump from time to time. He's got some speed around
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: the base. He's a good base runner. He's just an
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: all around really good ballplayer, and I think he makes
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: this team better. So I'm excited to have him back.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: And you bring up a good point. You know, we've
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: seen a lot of good from new but if he
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: was dealing with heel issues, he's had other physical ailments
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: along the way, maybe we never saw the best of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Lars Newport. Hopefully we will starting Friday now, when they
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: bring New back and the fact that Nathan Church is
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: due back, there's gonna be some roster churn, as they
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: call it. Who do you think stays? Who do you
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: think goes? Once new and Church are back.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: I think this can go a lot of different ways.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: And I don't really know. Obviously, I'm not in in
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: the room there with Tim in the front office, so
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure what exactly they're valuing and what exactly
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: they're trying to do here. You know, obviously they're trying
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: to get some of the some development for young guys.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: You know, I think we know that having a little
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: bit of offense at the bottom of the lineup would
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: probably be good for how this lineup is constructed.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: So I don't know.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I hate sitting here and guessing who's gonna go and
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: who's gonna stay, because I was that guy at certain times,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: and it's it's already in the room and you already
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: hear enough people talking about it, so you're kind of
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: just like waiting for the shoe to drop. But I mean,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I think the easy answer is one of those outfield guys,
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: you know, I think you have so jasion for me
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: and who are flex players.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: It's it's really an unpredictable move because this is not
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: like a Chalky move where it's like, hey, it's this
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: guy because he's in Newt's place. You know, you have
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: some some options here whether you want to. Although Walker's
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: playing good defense too, I don't. I don't know, Jim.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: There's there's a lot of ways this can go, and
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: I think that the good thing for the Cardinals is
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: that this move makes them better. The tough part is
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: that somebody has to be sent down from a team
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: that is playing good baseball, even if that player necessarily
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: hasn't been playing well.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: So let me ask you about Victor Scott the second,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: all right, because you mentioned a few guys in there,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: and by the way, I've been that guy in terms
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: of media positions and jobs and radio, I've been the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: odd man out. So I understand the sensitivity of Ave.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: But Victor Scott the second, Ali kind of called him
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: out for not delivering in a key bunt situation. He's
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: not hitting that well. We all know the upside to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Victor Scott the Second. He's a talented guy, but he's
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: just not getting it done right now, do you think
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: it might help him to go down, take some of
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the pressure off, and let him get comfortable with some
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: of the nuances they've introduced in terms of a swing
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and his approach at the play.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: I mean, I would assume right now, with how some
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: of these guys are coming up and playing well, they
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: have a pretty cohesive approach here with Triple A, and
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: they're on the same page with that coaching staff. And
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: you know, whoever gets sent down is going to have
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: the things to work on, and if it's Vic then yeah,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think you're trying to implement some of
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: these swing changes. You're trying to make sure that he
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: remembers his identity at the plate, the kind of player
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: he is offensively, and what his strengths are, and then
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: you're gonna try and ask him to expand on those
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: and make those as good as possible while he's down there.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't think this is like the send
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: down the end for Victor Scott at all. I think
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: he's a good player with a lot of tools. I
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: don't think the fact that all he called him out
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: for a bunt is you know, a doomsday thing. I
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: think all he knows his players, and he knows that
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Victor in that situation wanted to get it done, and
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: he's probably already had that conversation with him like, hey,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: that's a situation where we've got to get that down,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: you know, and and he understands what Victor can take
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: criticism and stuff like that.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So who knows.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: It'll be interesting because I think brings a lot to
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: the table defensively as well, and you know, speedwise on
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: the basis, you know, in a sense where maybe you
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: need to run for somebody. So there's there's a lot
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: of ways that this can go.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: He's he's such a weapon when he's on Victor Scott
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the second. I mean, his skill set is different than
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: other guys, and he is a good He is a
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: good kid, still young, and I know he takes criticism
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: to heart and is trying to do better. They've worked
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: with him on a swing and it was interesting to
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: me because I talked to Brent Brown. They wanted him
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to chop down to level his swing, and that didn't work,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: so they let him kind of go back, as Brent
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Brown calls it to his golf swing. Victor Scott starts
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: up here and then finishes up here right, and like
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: a golf swing. They just want him to hit less
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: fly balls because he's not home run hitteror per se.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: And it's a tough thing. Have you ever been through
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: a stretch in your career where you've had success at
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: every level boom boom, boom boom, and all of a
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: sudden something doesn't work and they go, oh, yeah, by
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the way, throw your fastball like this. Have you ever
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: dealt with that? Because that can't be easy.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: So do you want me to talk about the offensive
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: side for me, or did you want me to go
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: to pitching because I really thought you were going to
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: pitch offensive?
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, I wouldn't do that.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Offensive changes. I had offense changes. I did make offensive changes,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: but all right, fine, we'll stay pitching.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think you're always going through different times
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: of your career where things go well or you know,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: times where they don't. You know, I went through a
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: stretch in twenty sixteen and early twenty seventeen where I
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: had a little bit of a labram shoulder issue early
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen. Was able to pitch through it in
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, but just wasn't really myself and was probably
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: in my head a little bit about that, you know,
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: as well as on the mound. But then going into
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: twenty seventeen, had some issues and it's like, all right,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: I needed a little bit of reset. So when I
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: got sent down, it was like, hey, this is what
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: you do well, this is what we need you to
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: get back to, and it was just getting.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: My fast on the zone.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: But I think there's always things that you know, as
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: a pitcher, it's a whole lot easier to tinker because
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: I'm the one with the ball throwing it. So I
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: think there was always times where, probably a couple times
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: a year, I would sit there and mess with a
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: grip on a pitch and figure out, okay, when I
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: throw my cutter. You know, when I started throwing my cutter.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: You know, if I throw my cutter and move my
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: fingers two stitches to the right of where it feels comfortable,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: this is what it does. When I straighten it out,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: maybe I get a little bit more vlo, but it's
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: more of a four seam heater.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: There's always little things like that that as a pitcher
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: just easier to tinker with. And quite frankly, we can
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: go right to the mound in our bullpens and see
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: if we're getting the spin and the visual movement from
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: our catcher, and we're getting the movement on track man
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: right away, and then we can can compare it to
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: what it had been doing the three starts before. So
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: making those adjustments as a pitcher is just so much easier,
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: and it's it's so much we're so much I'm not
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: that we're more well equipped, We're just in a situation
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: where we can implement them faster, so you know, it's
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: it's definitely an advantage picture there, you know, when it
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: comes to those adjustments you're talking about.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I agree, that's a good point. All right, let's talk
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: about last night's win. To me, the best thing about
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: last night's win Jordan Walker three hits. Now. Walker in
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the first two games of the series with the Rangers
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: struck out seven straight times, a lot of it on
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the outside, breaking stuff where he was kind of flailing
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: away and he thought, is this just a bad stretch
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: or is it regression? And then you see last night
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: he was handling those pitches. You could see that he
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: was back, and to me, that was huge, right because
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Walker should be an All Star this year. His numbers
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: are phenomenal, and he's had to work to get back
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: to where he is. It would have been a bad
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: thing to see him regress. But what I saw last
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: night was Jordan recognized a bad stretch and fixed it,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And to me, that's huge for him and the ball flow.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's definitely some maturity. You know, if
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: you go through a week or two weeks spand where
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: you're swinging at the same pitch, you're missing, the same pitch,
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: you know that was something that I really tried to
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: key on as a pitcher and kind of feast on,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: especially when I matched up with one of my strengths.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: So you know, that's definitely something that you know, he
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: showed some maturity there and some ability to make adjustments.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: And really probably whether it was you know, one of
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: the hitting coaches or all it, or somebody said, hey,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: the best way is if you see it away.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Just take it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Make them land a fastball out there, and make them
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: throw some heaters on the outer part before you swing
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: in a pitch away from you. You know, make them
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: come in towards you where your sweet spot is, where
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: your nitro zone is. If you see it out of
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: that nitro zone, don't even swing. I don't know what
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: they're telling them, but you know there there's definitely times
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: where as a pitcher, I'm throwing the same pitch until
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: the guy shows me that he's making an adjustment and
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Jordan's either going to go out there and make sure
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: he stays on it, or he's gonna say, nope, you
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: can land four fastballs.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: In a row out there.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I'm not swinging out there because at some point you're
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: gonna give me to take debait. So you know, we
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: got to realize he's still pretty young and he's still
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: learning a lot about himself. And now that he's kind
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: of back in this groove where he had early in
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: his career, you know, he's he's finding his identity to
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: play it again, like we talked about earlier with Vic
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: and you know, if he can stay with that, I
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: think he's gonna have a couple of games here and there.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: He's human and he just got to block out the
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: noise because I'm sure there are people six strikeouts in
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: two games. Here we go again, Jordan Walker's back to
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: being no that's not uh. He can't listen to that.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: He's got to trust what he's doing and trust this process.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: He was mad at his performance, It wasn't like he
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: was worried, is what Ali described. And I think that's
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: a great sign. And by the way, you know, he
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: did get some of those pitches last night that were
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: breaking balls outside, but when they got in the zone,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: he handled them base hit. He's he's he's a different
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: guy than he was when he was struggling. And hopefully
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: this holds. We're gonna take a break here.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Go ahead, go ahead of course we are all right,
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: No goohead, No, you have to you have to kind
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: of make a decision in my mind as a hitter.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I mean, if a team is going to go with
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: a book and they are going to go with, hey,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: this is how we're gonna approach Sjordan Walker, and if
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: he beats us on this pitch, fine, but we are
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: not going to give into this zone. Right If the
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: team is gonna be really stingy, which they're gonna be
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: with Jordan Walker because he's got the pop and he's
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: got the game change ability, he's gonna have to make
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: that decision. Am I gonna go take that pitch away
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: and put it in play for a hit? Or am
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: I gonna spin on it and take my walk? And
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: then he's just got to be ready because when they
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: land in the zone, they're hittable pitches, right, Like, that's
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: why you don't throw get me over sliders in two
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: strike counts because sliders and auspeed in the zone are
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: hitable pitches. It's the ones that look like that heater
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: or middle and go out of the zone that make
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: it really tough. So you know, if he's gonna be
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: on those pitches that stay in the strike zone, because
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: there's that fine line right just out of the zone
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: is really good.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Just in the zone not good.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: If he's gonna be on those pitches that stay in
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: the zone, you know he's gonna go through stretches where
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: teams are gonna really be confused on how to get
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: him out.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's been a monster this year, no question. All right,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: we're gonna take our break here. You're watching Cardinal Territory.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I'm a file Territory Network.
• 14:46
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• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Gay two of the Rangers series. Riley O'Bryan was called
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: into the game and got hit around right. Three hits,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: three runs, thirty two pitches and if you look at
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: last month, the ZR was six, and we all know
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: O'Brien has lights out stuff, lights out stuff. He's not,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I don't think used to getting this much use over
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: a long period of time in terms of leverage situation.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: So last night, thirty two pitches. The night before, I
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: loved it. Olly brings Riley O'Brien into the game and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: he picks up to say, now wasn't perfect walk The
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: guy Jock Peterson nearly took him out of the ballpark,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: but he didn't. O'Brien gets through it as a pitcher.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: What does that mean to you when the manager has
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: that kind of faith to go right back to you.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I am assuming just how I've seen
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Ollie have those conversations. He went up to Riley and
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: probably said pregame a, you're still our guy? Are you
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: available tonight? Because I want to use you if you're available.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: And Riley he has that rubber arm man. He's a
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: guy that wants out there every night. So obviously he
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: told him he was good. And Riley wants the ball.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: And uh, you know he's got the He's got more
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: experience than would probably give him credit for, just with
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: his age and and how he's been around, and he's
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: been in a lot of different situations.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I think it's good to get him back
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: out there. All he trusts him.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: He trusts a lot of these guys in the back
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: end of the bullpen, which is really developing into a strength,
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: I think for the team. And you know, he's hit
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: his bumps here over the last month, but Riley O'Brien's
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: been really steady and he's human. But really good to
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: see you after a long outing for him to be
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: able to go back out there and and you know,
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: get the save. Obviously, all he knew we had an
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: off day today. Uh so he he knew that Riley
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: was going to get this off day and be set
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: up for hopefully a weekend where maybe you just have
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: to use him once if possible. So you know, Riley's
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: got nasty stuff. He's gonna be fine. I don't have
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: any doubts that you know, after a bad month, he's
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: gonna be right back out there.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Do you just good?
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: His uh? His stuff is elite, no question about it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: But from a picture standpoint, now, you were a start,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: not a bullpen guy. But if you have a couple
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: of bad starts in a row, you do your due
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: diligence to figure it out, make your corrections. How much
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: is there a mental game associated with that? Clear your
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: head and make sure you're as good as you can
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: possibly be.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: I the benefit of a starter here is that if
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I have four bad starts, that's probably you know, four
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: you're looking at three hundred pitches probably, and you know
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: a hundred at bats that I can look at, depending
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: on how long those starts were, I can really get
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: a good sense of probably what's going wrong. You know,
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Riley O'Brien, if you have five or six outings where
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: you're struggling, you're probably looking at one hundred pitches and
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: maybe thirty at bats. You know, so you're just you
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: don't have the same sample size to really kind of
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: get an idea. But for me, you know, I kind
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: of dove into it a lot, especially if it was
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: a really weird stretch where it was, you know, seven
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: eight hits in a game, five runs consistently, you know,
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: a certain point in the game. You know, I would
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: go and I would chart pitches and figure out, Okay,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: am I falling into a pattern of usage? Am I
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: falling into in love with one certain pitch too much?
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: Where is my location just that bad?
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Am I getting one to oh instead of oh one
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: too much? You know, there's a lot of things you
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: can look at. Pitch execution was normally the first thing
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: I went to, though, because we just have this ability
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: here to look back and say I was trying to
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: throw it here and I threw it there, or I
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: hit my spot. You know, we just kind of remember
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: what we were trying to do in those situations. So
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: you know, I would I would go so far to
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: chart my intended location and chart where I threw it
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: and then be able to see, you know, where my
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: misses were and how maybe there was some mechanical thing
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: going on causing that, So you know, that's I would
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: kind of get a little probably too in depth. But
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: what I think that gave me is it normally gave
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: me a clear picture of what's going on. Sometimes it
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: was muddied and I'd say, well, maybe it's just bad luck.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Got to move on here.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Other times it'd be like, okay, against Righty's I'm throwing
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: nothing inside. Obviously they're able to lean out and take
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: out the takeaway, the slider down and away, and I
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: two seem down the way.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I gotta throw more.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: In most of the times, it would give you a
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: clear picture of what's going on, So then it would
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: kind of give me a path forward, and mentally that
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: would help me out a lot. There's nothing worse than
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: having four or five starts in a row, going and
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: spending a couple hours looking into it, figuring out why,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: getting to the end of those couple hours and having
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: nothing to help you and you're like, well, I guess
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: I just got to go out and try again. You
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: don't necessarily feel confident that you're fixing the issue there,
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: so normally you want to find the problem. Then you
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: can diagnose and figure out how to get better and
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: move on from it.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: With so many young guys getting a look with the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Cardinals this year, you know, they talk about the grind
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: of the major league season. Maybe it's different for starting
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: pictures because you got like to be on the golf
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: course and maybe not chill with the ballpark as early
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: as some of the real players, I mean, the position players.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: But that's a real thing, isn't it Like the grind
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: of a major And it's not just physical, because I've
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: seen it. There's mental. Like you talk about living your
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: life and still doing a podcast when you're a major leaguer. Yeah,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: you're making a ton of money, but you still have
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the same issues that every human being has, and that's
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: part of the grind. Tell me about the grind of
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: a long major league season.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: I will say the grind, the grind for all players
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: is totally different. Okay, it's it's none of it's the same.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: But I would love to the mental side of starting pitching.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: The four days in between can be a real challenge.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: And I know that sounds silly, but if you're a
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: position player, you know that for the most part, either
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: the next day you're back out there and you get
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: a chance to erase the over three with a couple
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: of stri accounts and move on. If I go out
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: there and put up a stinker, I'm sitting for the
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: next four days. I on a stinker, and then I
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: get a couple hours to see if I'm going to
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: be any better, and then if I have another stinker,
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: I'm going on ten days in a row of stinking
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: and thinking about how bad I've been. So the mental
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: grind of a starting pitcher when you're going through one
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: of those stretches is not that much fun because not
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: that I'm I got over before my time in Minnesota
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: was done. I got over the fact that when I
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: have a bad outing, everybody is not looking at me
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: like I'm the reason we lost. I was at that
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: point at one point in my career. But so I
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: got over that. But you still never want to go
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: through a two week stretch where you don't feel like
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: you've had success. And if a position player plays twelve
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: games in fourteen days, they're probably gonna have some success.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: If I make three starts in fourteen days, I could
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: stink in two of the three or all three of them,
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: and that's not out of the roma possibility, and I
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: just have to sit on that a little bit. So
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: the mental grind is different the physical grind of a
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: starting pictures to me, it's the best job in the world. Yeah,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: you talk about the golf, you talk about everything else.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: You know, we have a whole lot different physical load
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: when it comes to work at the field. But mentally,
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: I think that gets overlooked a little bit.
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: No.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I I've talked to guys who had a bad start
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: two in a row, and they're sitting there just thinking
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: about that. Sure they're trying to figure out ways to
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: improve it, but it's right there. I was awful. By
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: the way, if you like Cardinal Territory, we have a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: little shop that you can get some merch So if
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: you like to, if you like the program, go ahead
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and go to Cardinal Territory shop dot com. We got
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: great T shirts, we got caps, we got hoodies, we
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: got a lot of stuff. I don't even know what
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: it is, but it's all quality stuff. I have a hat,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I have a T shirt. I know they sent some
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: stuff to Kyle and Lance. Lance might be wearing it
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: right now. He's at golf camp. But go ahead. Cardinalshop
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: dot com and get yourself some merchandise. Kyle, I thought
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: you were outstanding today. I learned a lot from you,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and that's gonna do it for this edition of Cardinal Territory.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: We'll see it for the next episode. Hopefully that one
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: won't suck.